Food supplements have shown to be extremely safe. Yet there are international efforts in progress to limit nutrient dosages and types of ingredients, both at the European level (Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament) and world wide, through Codex Alimentarius.

The reason for these legislative efforts is trade, more precisely the facilitation of international trade.

Pharmaceutical lobbies are working hard to limit the scope and effectiveness of food supplements, presumably because healthy people do not buy their medicines as readily as sick people. Government nutritionists are not of much help. They do not generally recognize the vast preventive potentional of supplements supplying high doses of selected nutrients and natural co-factors.

The needs of consumers and of alternative health practitioners are not taken into account in the legislative talks.

We have therefore drafted a petition which has been on line for some years, demanding that legislators take into account freedom of choice of the consumer.

Who are we? La Leva is an association of consumers concerned with freedom of choice.

At various stages during the process, politicians debating the European Food Supplements Directive and national delegates to the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses were informed of its existence and the number of signatures collected.

Unfortunately, both the European Supplements Directive and the Codex Alimentarius Vitamin and Mineral Guidelines were approved - despite your and our efforts to prevent this from happening. There is some good news as well: Both of these pieces of international legislation were heavily contested. Your signature and campaigns by others contributed to this. Consequently, neither the EU directive nor the Codex guidelines spell out detailed limits for supplements.

The battleground has therefore shifted to a new area: Those details that were left out and how the 'blanks' are going to be filled in.

On the European Food Supplements Directive, there are ongoing scientific discussions about limitations of dosage and allowed ingredients for supplements. The leading force in these discussions is the Alliance For Natural Health. Please support the Alliance in this work, in any way you can. Their site: http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/

On Codex Alimentarius, there is a similar situation. The text of the guidelines is vague and much depends on what countries do with it. Attention is therefore shifting to how each country implements these guidelines into national laws or decides to ignore them.

and don't forget to watch closely what is happening in your own country. The results of our petition will stay on line for anyone to refer to them in national or local campaigns. You can see the signatures that were collected here.